


Origins

by Amadi



Category: Actor RPF, Irish Actor RPF
Genre: Child Abuse, Claustrophobia, Fear, Gen, Psychotherapy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-10-10
Updated: 2008-10-10
Packaged: 2017-10-05 13:13:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/42104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amadi/pseuds/Amadi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pierce works through his claustrophobia-- maybe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Origins

**Author's Note:**

> Pierce Brosnan is (IRL) claustrophobic. This caused a brief shutdown in production during one of the Bond films when he had a panic attack during filming in an enclosed space. This is what happened afterward. This is in response to the prompt: _"Pierce Brosnan, claustrophobia" - I want to know if he knows where it comes from, how he handles it, things like that. If not, can I have him, and the prompt "purple" please?"_

"This wasn't the first time you experienced this problem, was it?" The psychiatrist is a lovely, kind woman about his own age, tall and regal looking in a purple dress. She came with the highest recommendations and impeccable credentials.

Nevertheless Pierce felt foolish, overexposed, sitting on the tastefully neutral sofa in the tastefully neutral room. But it's not the setting, it's the question. It's called to mind all of the times he's felt the panic, the crushing fear that consumes his thoughts, leaving him scrambling for release, screaming for help, tearing at his collar, sure that the breath is being choked out of him.

"First time? No, hardly not," he stalls, his mind running through a panoramic highlight reel of the notable moments when the "problem" had reared its head before. The lavatory of the Concorde during unexpected turbulence, in that ridiculous tank in _Goldeneye_, that episode of _Remington Steele_ when someone thought a 1.85m man should be folded into the boot of a Volkswagen Rabbit, a trout in a sardine can. "I don't think I remember the _first_ time anymore. It's just always been there."

"Always? In school, were there instances when you were that young?" The inquiry is calmly voiced, but insistent. He can't hide from it.

"I recall once it happened when the football coach turned off the lights in the locker room while I was still in the shower." That's a "safe" incident to share, not nearly as embarrassing as when it happened again when the art teacher sent him to get supplies from the closet and he was inside when the door blew closed. He couldn't help himself; the panic was instant, before he could even try the doorknob to see if he really was trapped.

The questions continue on for another twenty minutes and Pierce continues to find safe answers, always on guard against giving over too much. Finally, the hour is up.

"Well, Mr. Brosnan, I think I can, if you're willing to come back once more, I think I can equip you with some techniques to help you deal with these situations if they should arise in life, or in your work. It seems to me that it's just a heightened response to a normal anxiety regarding close spaces, not some deep-seated issue that would need some serious therapy. Are you willing to come back once more, give my ideas a try?"

Relieved, Pierce nods and agrees, setting an appointment for later in the week, then hastily departing, making polite noises of thanks and goodbye.

In the parking lot, he slips into his car and looks at himself in the rearview mirror. "Good work there, boyo. You kept it all in," he mocks himself with the congratulations, his hands tightening around the steering wheel. He'll come back in a few days

And thus the "problem" of Pierce's claustrophobic panic attacks is "solved" to the satisfaction of the people at both EON and Sony and his assurances that there will be no additional incidents is taken at face value. Production won't need to be halted for his mental health ever again.

And the secret of five year old Pierce, the little boy left by his father and his mother, raised by indifferent grandparents is kept. The secret of the grandfather who didn't want to see the boy's face, hear him breathe, know that he was there in the small house. The secret of the grandfather who put the small child into the cabinet under the sink for hours, sometimes overnight, was safe.

At least for now.


End file.
